Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has just approved the budget for grassroots healthcare from 2016-2020, a programme that includes funding for constructing health facilities, supporting traditional medicine, and providing healthcare in remote areas.

The Target Programme on the development of grassroots healthcare in the 2016-2020 period forecasts a total investment for the programme of VNĐ19.829 trillion (US$872 million), and this figure could be adjusted to rise but will not exceed VNĐ22.5 trillion ($989.8 million).

Nearly half of the total investment - about VNĐ10 trillion ($444 million) - comes from local budgets and the national lottery. The central budget contributes VNĐ2.4 trillion ($105 million). This figure could nearly double to VNĐ 5.06 trillion, but only when “more capital sources are available.” VNĐ4.94 trillion is sourced from official development assistance (ODA) funds and other aids.

The programme comprises three different component projects, targeting different areas of healthcare.

Component project 1 provides VNĐ16.6 trillion as investment into modern health facilities, with the goal of easing patient overload on hospitals from 2013-20. The project aims to reach the target of 26.5 patient beds for every 10,000 people, minimising instances in which patients must share beds with others. In addition, resources will be focused on the completion of 64 projects begun in 2011-15 period that remain unfinished due to lack of capital, plus the implementation of at least 28 new projects in the 2016-20 period.

Component project 2, with a total budget of VNĐ1.63 trillion, aims to give a boost to traditional medicine health facilities, so that by 2020, traditional medicine accounts for 20 per cent of treatment provided at provincial level hospitals. New traditional medicine hospitals will be built in provinces that currently have none. Resources will also be prioritised for localities with natural advantages for cultivating herbal materials.

Component project 3, with a cut of VNĐ1.6 trillion from the total budget, aims at developing health facilities in island and coastal areas. In this project, building more fully-equipped health facilities for these remote areas is considered a priority, in order to meet the local populace’s demands and minimise the need for islanders to seek inland treatment.